Celebrating small wins: how the Green Radiotherapy Framework is shaping sustainability in therapeutic radiography
St Bartholomew’s Hospital’s radiotherapy department is the first to receive the Gold award under the Green Radiotherapy Framework. The team shared why it’s important to celebrate all victories – even the small ones
Celebrating small wins: how the Green Radiotherapy Framework is shaping sustainability in radiography
St Bartholomew’s Hospital’s radiotherapy department is the first to receive the Gold award under the Green Radiotherapy Framework. The team shared why it’s important to celebrate all victories – even the small ones
By Will Phillips
By Will Phillips
By Will Phillips
By Will Phillips
By 2040, the NHS plans for the carbon emissions under its control to have reached net zero. With the health service responsible for 5 per cent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, the journey isn’t going to be easy.
In radiotherapy, that mission is especially challenging – linear accelerators, for example, are intense energy users, and radiotherapy patients travel to the hospital many times, with radiotherapy emissions accounting for roughly 0.3 per cent of global healthcare emissions.
Rather than getting discouraged by the challenge of sustainability, however, the winners of the first Gold award under the Green Radiotherapy Framework (gRTF), the radiotherapy department at St Batholomew’s Hospital in London, saw a goal to be reached – step by step, small win by small win.
Synergy spoke to members of the St Bartholomew’s team, as well as the Radiotherapy Board Environmental Sustainability Working Group – the team behind the framework itself – to find out more about how radiographers from across the country can start their sustainability journey.